For as much as we talk about creativity, it's surprising how rarely we clarify what the word means. Similar to 'love' and 'friendship', there is a risk of the word becoming watered down to the point that it barely means anything at all.
I believe we've inherited an impoverished definition of creativity. Not only does this traditional definition limit who can count as creative (only the exceptionally talented) but it also limits what kind of activity we can conceptualize as a creative outlet.
Traditional creativity is confined to the artistic and intellectual domains.
The default popular definition of creativity seems to be something along the lines of "are you good at painting and drawing... or perhaps music?"
The default academic definition of creativity is "the production of an idea or product that is both novel and useful" (Amabile, 1983).
Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply in any way that art isn't intellectual. In many ways this is a false distinction, but here I'm using 'intellectual' as a shorthand for science, business and organizations.
But what if creativity isn't what we do, it's how we do it? Because of course we can paint a painting in a more-creative or a less-creative way. The same way we can generate a new business idea in a more-creative or a less-creative way.
So, what if we trace back from the creative product to the underlying creative process, the way of being, that is its source? Something we might call a 'creative orientation' or a 'creative way'.
But what constitutes a creative orientation? I’ll tackle this question in another post. For the moment, let's assume that there is such a thing. If so, we should be able to approach any endeavor in a creative way, right? So let's test it out.
So if artistic creativity is a way of making something beautiful and intellectual creativity is a way of thinking that yields new ideas, what could be a third domain of creativity?
I'm proposing that we can see the way we interact with another person, the way we show up, as a domain for creativity. And relational creativity is a way of relating to another person that results in a felt experience of meaningful connection. For the principles of creative relating, check out my TEDx talk.
Are there other domains of life that you see as domains of creativity? I personally think travel can be a creative endeavor. What comes to mind for you?
So, given all of this, how am I defining creativity? I want a definition big enough to include all possible domains of creativity, something not limited to intellectual ideas, or artistic expression, but also that isn't so diluted as to not have any meaning at all.
My working definition is as follows:
"Creativity is a partnership between possibility and the present.”
It's not perfect, but it's a work in progress...